Zorknot wrote:

White Wolf <cherry@thekeep.org> wrote: On Thu, 31 Aug 2006, Zorknot wrote:

I understand the position, and since it seems to be the prevailing one 
I'll try to make more formal disclaimers when I post to the FFML in the 
future, but here's my view on the issue, if it can be called an issue:

1.Regardless of whether a disclaimer exists or not, fanfiction is still, 
technically, illegal.

Partially true.  Not all authors condemn fanfic.  Fanfiction in the 
universe of an author who does ban it is also banned on the list.

Nope. All the way true. If some one steals my wallet and I don't press charges it's still a crime regardless. Copyright infringement is still copyright infringement. It's just that if you infringe on the copyright of an author who condemns it, you're more likely to be prosecuted.

Right. And if your child eats your food and you don't press charges it's 
still a crime, regardless?

Type "Qui tacet consentiret" into Google, see what you get.

3. Therefore the disclaimer is a courtesy, rather than a >necessity. A 
way of saying "Thank you for not suing me!" In advance, by >acknowledging 
where some portion of the credit lies.

You've nailed it.  It's a courtesy.  So be courteous about it.

 Courtesy is subjective. I feel it is more courteous to attempt some originality rather than slap some cookie cutter disclaimer on a fic. You apparently disagree. That's fine. 

It probably wouldn't have come up if I had worked a little harder on it. I probably should have made the disclaimer more inteligible, and writing in some bastardized form of L33t isn't exactly original. 

I just have trouble with the idea that disclaimers must be devoid of humor and creativity.

-Z

Leave your persecution complex at the door.

If someone came up to me and spouted off a long string of random 
gibberish, I would think many things, but none of them would be "my, how 
courteous".

First, you don't have to impress us with your rapier wit and outstanding 
creativity in the disclaimer. There's somewhere else you can do that. 
It's called "the rest of the fic".

Second, while you can be funny with your disclaimer, trying to be funny 
and failing gives the impression you're not taking your writing very 
seriously. This is not a good first impression to leave. It isn't 
impossible to be funny:

---

In the beginning, Rumiko Takahashi created Ranma 1/2. This has made a 
lot of people very angry and would be widely regarded as a bad move, if 
most of them weren't fictional.

---

But the repertoire of humor based around "Person X Owns Thing Y" is not 
that broad, and you'll probably end up repeating yourself anyway. However!

The general advice I have regarding author's notes and disclaimers goes 
something like this.

I've never known anybody to toss away a fic because of "mundane" or 
"bland" disclaimers or author's notes.

I've known lots of people who tossed away a fic because of "flavored" 
disclaimers or author's notes that weren't to their liking.

--GF

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